The Oregon Department of Human Services is spending $3.2 million to hire a California consultant to help the state’s largest bureaucracy figure out how to do its job.

It represents a small fraction of the $12 billion two-year budget. But the expenditure has raised a few eyebrows among advocates for the agency’s clients — a large proportion of whom are poor, elderly or children.

Of course, the knee jerk reaction is to come down on DHS for burning through $3 million that could be going to services for the state’s needy and disadvantaged. But if we expect DHS to be running more effectively and efficiently, can we really begrudge them the tools they need to get the job done?